MORALITY 



struggle for existence. In the case of the higher ani- 

 mals this association becomes particularly important, 

 because it is accompanied by an extensive division of 

 labor. Then arises the antithesis of the personal egoism 

 and the communal altruism ; and in human societies the 

 opposition of the two instincts is all the greater when 

 reason recognizes that each has a right to satisfaction. 

 Social habits become moral habits, and their laws are 

 afterwards taught as sacred duties, and form the basis 

 of the juridical order. 



The morals of nations, so rich in psychological and 

 sociological interest, are nothing more than social in- 

 stincts, acquired by adaptation, and passed on from 

 generation to generation, by heredity. An attempt has 

 been made to distinguish between the two kinds of 

 habit by describing the instincts of animals as constant 

 vital functions based on their physical organization, , 

 and the habits or morals of human beings as mental 

 powers maintained by a spiritual tradition. This dis- 

 tinction has, however, been excluded by the modern 

 physiological teaching that men's morals are, like all 

 their other psychic ftmctions, based physiologically on 

 the organization of their brain. The habits of the in- 

 dividual man, which have been formed by adaptation 

 to his personal conditions, become hereditary in his 

 family ; and these family usages can no more be sharply 

 distinguished from the general morals of the community 

 than these can be from the precepts of the Church and 

 the laws of the state. 



When a certain habit is regarded by all the members 

 of a community as important, its cultivation favored 

 and its breach punished, it is raised to the position of 

 a duty. This is true even in the case of the herds of 

 mammals (apes, gregarious carnivora, and ungulates) 

 and the flocks of social birds (hens, geese, ducks). The 

 laws which have been formed in these cases by the higher 



419 



